Hi there, Eric Bakker.
Thanks for coming back and checking out my videos.
Going to talk about Pancreatic Enzyme Testing today.
What's a Pancreatic Enzyme Test?
What's the relevance for it?
How do you do it?
Why do you need it?
Let's just discuss a few of these topics.
The pancreas is a very interesting digestive gland, it sits behind the stomach, and it
produces many different types of enzymes.
Some of those enzymes, you know proteases, lipases we've got several different types.
These are all involved in different aspects of your digestion.
All right the proteases well, obviously, break protein down to small components, so you really
need this if you're eating lots of meat or foods containing high protein.
Lipases are important, they help to break fats down, and they work with bile that's
produced by the liver, stored in the gallbladder.
So, lipase and bile work together to break down and emulsify fats.
It's very important to have fats in your diet, we need fatty soluble vitamins as well.
Now many people think that fat is bad but not all fats are bad.
Many fats are, in fact, good.
We've got lipases, we've got proteases and we've got amylases and these basically break
down the carbohydrates into sugars.
These three sort of bunches or groups of enzymes actually get fully processed in the digestive
process.
We can measure these through the blood but not really through the stool.
We've got different enzymes that basically powers through the gut.
The P-E1 enzyme is what we check, the pancreatic elastase enzyme, is the one we that check
really in the stool because it goes through without really breaking down or changing.
So, we can tell by the amounts you've got there whether the pancreas is producing enough
enzyme or not, this is called exocrine insufficiency.
The pancreas has two roles in the body.
A very extremely role it plays is producing hormones like insulin, these are produced
by cells in the pancreas.
This is the endocrine function of the pancreas or the hormone function.
The exocrine is basically the digestive processes, you know that occur with the pancreas.
The pancreas produces between six to eight cups of pancreatic juice a day.
That's a lot of stuff.
That basically gets put into the small intestine to allow you to break down food properly.
This test is very relevant for you if you've got a lot of digestive problems that you think,
for example, it could be candida or parasites, or you know you could have a food allergy
or something going on.
This is why I often recommend a stool test, a comprehensive one because you'll get so
much information that you can work with.
It can often quickly pinpoint to a problem area that needs fixing.
So, if the P-E1 enzyme is too low for example, we start looking at things like bloating,
gas, thin stools, poor stool formation, cramping, stools that flow or greasy stools, these are
all sort of things that can happen with poor pancreatic function.
Many times when I talk to the patient and inquire about this, there could be a background
of soda consumption, chocolate consumption, very high bread consumption, alcohol, very
commonly.
So, these enzyme tests serve very different roles, sometimes pancreatic enzymes are assessed
to determine if you've got Type 1 diabetes, for example, okay.
That can also help the doctor.
They're do serum testing in that case.
Cystic fibrosis, for example, have a real problem with the pancreas, so they produce
too much mucous in the body, so, many different conditions that can be built around malfunctioning
pancreas.
Pancreatitis, is pancreatic inflammation, it can be acute or chronic.
It can even lead to cancer, pancreatic cancer.
So, the stool test will give clinicians, like me, a great insight into how this very important
digestive organ is working.
Whether you need supplementing with pancreatic enzymes or not.
The difference can be remarkable when you get good enzymes taken by mouth if you're
not producing sufficiently.
If you make a diet change and take supplements for a while, this can often help to bring
the pancreas back up to speed again, get it in good shape.
Especially important if you've got problems with pancreas is to stop all alcohol, entirely,
until the pancreas is working better.
Same goes for soda drinks, same goes for a lot of bad beverages in particular, any kind
of sugar, not a really good idea.
I often get told that I give far too much basic information on this channel, by many
people on YouTube, but you know what?
Many people never get the basics right.
So, why even try advanced concepts of healing when you haven't even got the basics right.
That's a little bit about Pancreatic Enzyme Testing through the stool.
Very important, outstanding thing to do if you do a stool test, say, "Look at that."
Then, act on that information, it could make all the difference in your life if you've
had a pancreatic problem and it hasn't been solved yet.
The last thing I'll leave you with is this is a difficult organ to diagnose because it's
in the center of the body.
It's not an organ that you can really put a camera down here or in the other side and
actually see this thing.
It's very difficult to determine how it's working unlike the bowel, which is easier
to put a camera in there, but you can't really do that with the pancreas.
The only really way we can determine problems with this organ is really through this kind
of test.
So, that was some information for you.
Thanks for tuning in.